MAP27: Monster Condo (Doom II)

MAP27: Monster Condo is the twenty-seventh map of Doom II. It was designed by Sandy Petersen and uses the music track "Waiting For Romero To Play". The par time is 5:30.

In the Sony PlayStation and Sega Saturn versions of Doom II, this level leads to the final level, MAP54: Redemption Denied.

Essentials
At the start, go towards the east and go through the door. Pick up the rocket to reveal a larger library with baddies. There are two skull switches on bookcases by the south side of the room; hit the east one to reveal more enemies. Push through to the invulnerability sphere and get the yellow skull key next to it. More Hell knights will be released (or imps on I'm Too Young To Die and Hey Not Too Rough skill levels), and another one will when you grab ammo in the back of the new room. Hit the skull switch in the last alcove to re-open the bookcase so you can escape.

Exit the library, go east and touch the floating skull rock to lower a wall with imps. Pass it and go west towards a door at the end of the corridor. In the large room hit a switch in the northwest corner to lower a large chunk of floor. Go through the door and then the yellow key door to its right. Climb the stairs towards the end and get the blue skull key. Jump towards a platform in the center of the room and you will be sent to a similar room. Hit the switch in the east wall and shoot the north wall. Hit the switch there and go through the door while trying to avoid the revenants and mancubi. On the other side of the door, quickly open the center wall. Follow the corridor and lift platform towards the end and hit the wall behind the invulnerability sphere and go through it.

You will be sent to a small room. Hit the wall in front to return in the large room where you were heading towards the yellow door before. Watch out for numerous revenants in the room and go towards the blue key door. Hit the switch and get red skull key in the midst of the knights. Go to the door beside the blue one and hit the first switch on the north side. The floor will lower. Go towards the narrow corridor, pass the arch-vile and step on the sky behind the red key door to finish the level.

Secrets

 * 1) The first secret can only be accessed for the first 30 seconds of the level (sector type 10), so time is of the essence. First, make your way around the right side of the slime pit ahead of you at the start. Cross the tiny walkway alongside the wall to get to the other side (or jump down from the walkway leading up to the rocket launcher in the center of the pit). At the far left of the wall in front of you is a door; go through and turn left. The brightly lit corner of this large room is the timed secret. (sector 10) When you reach the secret area, you can place yourself under the wall that will lower when 30 seconds have elapsed from the start. If you do this, the wall will reopen permanently when it attempts to close, so you can save the secret's ammo for later. This, however, only works reliably on source ports that fix an issue with the behavior of this specific sector type (see the sixth note of the Bugs section). If the wall closes while you are in the secret, you can press the wall to open it temporarily.
 * 2) After picking up the yellow skull key in the library, wait until the bookcase you entered from lowers. Press the switch on the south side of the bookcase to open a secret alcove behind you. (sector 157) The switch inside is the only way to re-open the bookcase, letting you out.
 * 3) Just north of the library is a corridor leading east. Step into the circle of light at the end of this corridor to open the wall in front of you, unleashing some arachnotrons. The area inside counts as a secret. (sector 171)
 * 4) North of the corridor from secret #3 is another just like it. Step into the circle of light around the glowing skull decoration to lower the wall between them. In the second corridor, step into the light surrounding the glowing eye decoration to open another monster closet that counts as a secret area. Inside are a partial invisibility and a light amplification visor. (sector 177)
 * 5) Return to the second large area (where secret #1 was) and go through the door to the right. Inside the next room are two blue skull switches. Press the one on the right to lower the floor in the opposite corner, revealing a secret tunnel leading to a teleporter. (sector 92)
 * 6) The teleporter pad in secret #5 counts as a separate secret. (sector 93) However due to the teleporter only being one way, there is normally no way the player can get on the teleporter pad to trigger the secret credit. See the Bugs section below for details.
 * 7) In the room where the blue key is found, activate the switch on the eastern wall. The western wall opens up, revealing several mancubi. The alcove they were hiding in&mdash;which contains a berserk pack, a supercharge and a computer area map&mdash;counts as secret. (sector 45)
 * 8) Step into the raised square in the center of the room containing the blue key to be teleported to a room identical to it. The alcove analogous to secret #7, which contains the same items, is also secret. (sector 129) The switch on the eastern wall in this secret has the same functionality as the one in secret #7: It opens the western walls in both rooms: The one described in secret #7 and the other one described in secret #8.

Bugs
Secret #6 cannot normally be reached in order to be triggered due to being behind a teleport linedef, making it ordinarily impossible to get 100% secrets without cheating. However, via use of wallrunning, it is possible to trigger a linedef skip to obtain the secret. This is not presently required for 100% completion under Compet-N rules.

There are two computer area maps in this map (see secrets #7 or #8 above), which makes it impossible to get 100% items, since the player can only pick up one map per level. However, some source ports allow two to be picked up as a way to achieve the status.

The red key door by the exit is only eight units wide, and the opposite side's linedef is set to linedef type 1 (no key required, monsters can open). This allows the arch-vile to open the door by bumping into it (see Monsters open locked doors).

It is possible to get trapped on the ledge with the pain elementals and BFG9000 if the player uses the teleporter (secret #5) to get up there without having first ran across the trigger which opens up the ledge (the trigger that opens the ledge is just to the right of the blue skull switch that controls access to the teleporter).

This level has a type 10 door (sector 11) that closes when 30 seconds have elapsed from the start (see secret #1). If the door is prevented from closing by standing in the sector, the door will reopen as usual, but its ceiling will pass the level of the adjacent ceiling and go on rising. If the player allows the ceiling of the door to rise high enough (by spending about two minutes) and then moves into the sector or out of it, the game will likely crash and display the error R_MapPlane. The problem has been fixed in many source ports, and when playing on them, the ceiling will stop at an appropriate height if the door is forced to reopen.

As some shelves in the library work as doors, they may crush monster corpses to the pools of gore. The arch-vile presented in the library (on Hurt Me Plenty or higher) gives a great likelihood to encounter ghost monsters.

The switch behind the blue key door to lower the platform containing the red key is linedef type 71 "S1 Lower Floor to Highest Neighbor Floor + 8". If all four revenant traps surrounding it are not lowered first, the floor will not lower and the red key becomes inaccessible.

Design oddities
Sector 80, the red key door marker in front of the exit, has a ceiling flat of, but the surrounding ceiling has.

Linedef 342 is set to be impassable even when it should be physically passable. The linedef is located next to the skull switch that lowers the platform to the red door.

Current Compet-n records
The Compet-n records for the map are:

The data was last verified in its entirety on July 5, 2020.

Current DSDA records
The records for the map at the Doom Speed Demo Archive are:

The data was last verified in its entirety on July 24, 2023.

Player spawns
This level contains eight spawn points:
 * 1) facing south-west. (thing 462)
 * 2) facing west. (thing 463)
 * 3) facing west. (thing 464)
 * 4) facing north-east. (thing 465)
 * 5) facing west. (thing 466)
 * 6) facing west. (thing 467)
 * 7) facing west. (thing 468)
 * 8) facing south. (thing 469)

Things
This level contains the following numbers of things per skill level:

Inspiration and development
According to designer Sandy Petersen, this level was inspired in part by a recurring nightmare about a library with a secret room containing something horrible.

Trivia

 * Literally, "House of Monsters" or "The Monsters' Place".
 * This map contains the only tall techno column in the entirety of Doom II.